Linkage adjustment

[westy66]

Greetings,
this is my first post. ive always loved boating and i just got my first boat. i dont know much about boats, but i have been working on and restoring VW's for years... so im somewhat mechanical.

i have a low hour 1978 700 Merc 70 hp w/ Thunderbolt ign in great shape. seems to run good, when i went to look at it. it sat for a little while, so i have some carb rebuild kits coming in the mail. the owner said he tried adjusting the linkage (throttle/drive) and that was the problems he was having.

i cant seem to find any good info about proper adjustment, slop, range of motion, etc.... can anyone point me in the right direction?

thanks,
Bob in Cleveland

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Linkage adjustment

Bob, I am not sure what you want to adjust. After you have set the idle mixture, and the idle speed stop screw, set the throttle cable to push the throttle closed. Add a bit of preload as well.

To set the shift cable, loosen the cable clamp and with the control in neutral, wiggle the shift lever until it settles into the neutral detent. Now adjust the shift cable to fit the clamp.

 

[Georgesalmon]

Re: Linkage adjustment

And,,,,there is no adjustment in the control. Just to maybe save you some time.

 

[westy66]

Re: Linkage adjustment

thanks for your responses... i just dove in and loosened things up so i could see how things are adjusted. so, i have two questions.

1-i dont have reverse. forward is fine. the control lever wont go into reverse with the cable connected. if i remove the drive cable i can (a) move the gear selector arm into reverse manually and (b) move the MerControl lever back into reverse. hook it back up and no reverse

2-this is a dumb question. where is the mixture screw? is there one, or one for each carb. i see where to adjust the idle.

thanks
Bob

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Linkage adjustment

If there is not enough "travel" on the Mercontrol to achieve both forward and reverse, then the control is bad. You might look for broken parts.

That motor looks to have center bowl carbs. The mixture screw is at the 3PM position aproximately. One per carb. Controls the fuel flow at idle speeds.

 

[uncle_bud]

Re: Linkage adjustment

Cables are reversed.

 

[westy66]

Re: Linkage adjustment

Really uncle bud? Are the cables different? I order two more for $21 each. They are split in a couple places and rusty. I thought they might br seized.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Linkage adjustment

Westy, To test to see if cables are reversed....Move throttle handle to forward. First cable to move is shift cable. It should be installed in lower shift slider track.